What happens if you have a negative balance on PayPal?
By liquorice
@liquorice (3887)
April 18, 2009 10:09am CST
I misjudged my myLot payment date and paid some money out of my PayPal account. It was really silly. 
Someone asked me to sponsor them for running the London marathon, and I thought, "Hey, I'll use my PayPal account. It'll be quick and easy!"
Well it was, but as myLot won't actually be paying me for a month (my mistake not theirs!) I now have a negative balance! It's only by just over a pound, but I've read that being overdrawn is against PayPal regulations and that they penalise you for this. Will my account be suspended? Will I be banned?? I'm hoping they don't track me down and slam me in jail.. I'm normally such a law-abiding person!! 
I'm hoping none of this will happen, and also that my friend's marathon payment doesn't get refused. Now that would be a bit sad!
Has this happened to you? What happened? (Are you still a free citizen??? 
)
Someone asked me to sponsor them for running the London marathon, and I thought, "Hey, I'll use my PayPal account. It'll be quick and easy!"
Well it was, but as myLot won't actually be paying me for a month (my mistake not theirs!) I now have a negative balance! It's only by just over a pound, but I've read that being overdrawn is against PayPal regulations and that they penalise you for this. Will my account be suspended? Will I be banned?? I'm hoping they don't track me down and slam me in jail.. I'm normally such a law-abiding person!!
I'm hoping none of this will happen, and also that my friend's marathon payment doesn't get refused. Now that would be a bit sad!
Has this happened to you? What happened? (Are you still a free citizen??? )1 person likes this
8 responses
@psychotaz206 (2086)
• United States
22 Apr 09
i didnt know you can over draw from pay pal i thought if you ran out of pay pal money the take it out of your bank account because thats what they always done to me but i don't think they will come get you just call them and find out what you can do to fix the problem
1 person likes this
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
I don't think I was actually overdrawn, I probably didn't explain it too well. I just realised that I was paying out more money than I had in there. I didn't see a negative balance on PayPal at all, so you're probably right about them just taking it from my bank account. It makes perfect sense, and is a relief, lol!
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
I just re-read my discussion, and yes, I did put that I had a negative balance, which was a bit confusing. Actually the negative balance was just in my head after my calculations, not on PP itself!
@ahilanman (51)
• Canada
18 Apr 09
ya you not in trouble because there mistake they suppouse not to allow to go you pay pal account in - so there are responed for that so you do not worry about that ok be cool if caught by police in must by cyber crime only they take only 7 to 10 year in jail that fine ok isn't it cool ???????
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
Hmm, 7 to 10 years, guess that's not too bad, lol! Actually my account never did show a negative balance, so that was cool. I don't fully understand what happened, but it doesn't seem that I'm in trouble, so that's good!
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
Um, after re-reading my discussion I realise it sounds as if I meant that my PP account showed a negative. Actually the negative balance was just in the calculations in my head as I paid out more than I had . You're right that my PP account never went into overdraft. Sorry for the confusion!!
. You're right that my PP account never went into overdraft. Sorry for the confusion!!
@tigerdragon (4297)
• Philippines
18 Apr 09
hope, you won't get caught in the slammer. usually, if you do not have enough funds on your paypal account , it will be withdrawn from your receiving bank, and would cost some fees.
1 person likes this
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
Hmm, not in the slammer yet..
I think that's what must have happened as my PayPal account didn't actually go negative from what I can tell. Thanks for your answer.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
2 May 09
I see that you've got the problem sorted now. I use PayPal for loads of things. In fact I prefer to pay in dollars as the exchange rate from pound is so awful. But I've not gone overdrawn. I do have both my bank and credit crads attached so as others have said, I suppose that's where the money comes from.
1 person likes this
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
Yes, it's a good idea to use dollars at the moment. It's good that you use PayPal for lots of things. I've only ever used it to receive money before, but I can see how it would be really quick and useful to use. I might use it more in the future, but make sure I have enough funds first, lol!
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
19 Apr 09
usually they will just take it out of the credit card or bank account associated with the account
1 person likes this
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
Cool, I'm glad about that. I think I'll try not to pay for things out of PayPal in future, or if I do I'll take a bit more care!
@wonttakelong (3555)
• United States
18 Apr 09
I could be wrong but....
i think they will just take the amount that you overdrafted out of your bank account attached to your paypal account
1 person likes this
@liquorice (3887)
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2 May 09
Thanks wonttakelong, I think that's probably what happened. I didn't see any negative balance on my paypal account anyway, so they must have got it from somewhere - and what you said makes sense. Phew!
@sisco100 (2338)
• United States
18 Apr 09
its hard to say what would happen. i really dont know becaues i've never had that problem on paypal. most of the time i just use paypal to get money form site and to transfer them to my bank and that it. when it comes to paying for thing on line i really dont do it. the only thing that i can think that they would do is charge you a fee. depending on how much is negitive then they might suspend your account for a while. i dout that they would cancel your account. well good luck with things and i hope that they dont do some thing bad to your account.
1 person likes this
@liquorice (3887)
•
2 May 09
Thanks sisco, it doesn't look as if they did anything bad. I haven't paid using paypal before so the experience was a bit daunting, especially when I thought I was doing something illegal, lol!
@yudi18 (29)
• India
18 Apr 09
Nothing would happen to your account. Was it a Verified Paypal account?
Has it been shifted to a Limited account?
If Yes, then just mail to the customer service about it and tell them what all happened and ask them what you can do in this case.
And They Won't Sue you buddy. LoL
Don't worry about it, your secured at your place only.
